Gan Gan Galaxy
by PrincessZaraStar
Summary: A collection of epic fails preformed by everyone's favorite team.
1. The Airport

**Hello! This, in short, is a collection of random fan-created fails that occur over the time span of the Beyblade World Championships (Metal Masters aka Metal Fight Explosion). There're random, probably stupid, and there isn't much point to it, but I love these characters a lot so I thought I'd weave together a story in their honor. Enjoy!**

**I do not own Metal Fight Beyblade.**

* * *

><p><strong>Gan Gan Galaxy<strong>

"Hey Guys!"  
>A small girl with shiny brunette hair, bounds towards her friends, a pink book in hand. Her aqua eyes sparkle with excitement and her whole face glows, nearly dying to spill her news.<br>"What's up Madoka?" asks a red-haired boy, while sipping on a cold glass of sweet lemonade. He slouches in his chair, tugging at the collar of his orange shirt trying to resist the humid air around them.  
>Madoka grins and holds out the book, which is noted by her friends to be completely covered in plastic gems and strawberry scratch-and-sniff stickers.<br>"Look!" she gasps excitedly.  
>"Why are you showing us your journal?" a boy with black hair asks, leaning forward for a better look, "I thought they were <em>private<em>."  
>"Masumune, you can be such a dummy sometimes," Madoka scolds, frowning. She opens the book and points to pictures of the five friends,<br>"It's a scrapbook I made. Of our time in the World Championships."  
>The smallest boy nearly crashes into Madoka, as if running away from something. He falls on the ground, which softens what would be a loud thud.<br>"Ouch," he grumbles, before looking up at her, "Hey Madoka. A little help, please?"  
>"Yu! What are you doing?" Madoka snaps, gently pulling her smaller companion up from the ground. His lime colored shorts are covered in dirt from his fall.<br>"Oh nothing much. Just running away from-"  
>"Yu!"<br>The foursome turn their heads to see a tall, tanned teen speeding across the lawn; silver hair flying loosely behind him. Yu pales a little more than usual before taking off again,  
>"Uh, see you guys!"<br>He's no match for the teen's speed though, and is quickly caught in his grasp,  
>"Give me my hair ring back! I can't tie my hair up without it!"<br>Yu thrusts his hand out away from his predator, a glistening gold ring in his palm,  
>"No! I told you; try elastic sometime!"<br>"Yu!"  
>Madoka rolls her eyes as Masumune and Ginka, the redhead, begin cheering.<br>"Show him who's boss, Tsubasa!" Masumune yells.  
>"Man up, Yu!" Ginka adds.<br>Madoka feels anger boiling up inside. Why was she always interrupted by something? Didn't these guys care? She watches as Tsubasa manages to get his hair ring back, while Yu jumps up attempting to grab it. Ginka and Masumune hold up notebook paper with scores scribbled on them.  
>8.9 from Ginka.<br>3.2 from Masumune.  
>"No praise, Masumune?" Tsubasa jokes, as he lifts Yu onto his back. Piggy back rides were always the compromise.<br>"You know you can do better than that. Ginka's such a softie," Masumune states. Ginka's eyes fill with fake shock as he puts his hands on his hip and faces Masumune,  
>"Oh yeah? Well, you're such a critic. Anyone looks like a 'softie' next to your ego!"<br>"Excuse me? Did this just come from the boy who nearly revealed your own special move to a certain Chinese flatterer back in China?"  
>"Oh no you didn-"<br>"Enough!" Madoka shouts. She soon finds four pairs of eyes resting on her face as she lets her annoyance drain into her hands, which are spazzing around in crazy motions, "I've been trying to show you this scrapbook, you guys! Can't I have a little respect?"  
>Madoka watches as Tsubasa rests Yu down, and Ginka and Masumune turn to face her directly. She finally has their attention. And she realizes that she's been a bit louder than intended. She opens her mouth to apologize, but no words come out.<br>It's hot out.  
>So hot and sticky.<br>She suddenly wishes that she wore her bathing suit for a dip in the pool. The clear, cold water would feel so good right now. Oh well. This was no time to be dreaming about pools. She had an apology to share.  
>"S-sorry guys, I just…I just…" she looks down. Her toes are pink with little daisies painted perfectly on each nail. The unnaturally green grass tickles her feet and the cool, dampness of it is welcome to her toes. Something about the cool earth and her painted toenails calm and clear her mind.<br>"I just thought it would be nice for us to remember the moments that we shared together. I have pictures from every country and even the airport."  
>Her four former-teammates just stare at her, like she's some sort of alien or something. Finally, Ginka speaks up,<br>"Is that so? Sounds cool, let's see them."  
>Yu starts to protest, but Tsubasa shoots him a look that shuts him up quickly. Masumune's the only one that looks genuinely interested.<br>"Co-ol!" he exclaims, leaning towards the pink book, "I didn't know you took all these pictures."  
>Madoka's fingers itch to face palm; how could Masumune forget? He was the one always commenting about how she should stop taking thousands of pictures all the time. But she resists, and instead opens her treasured scrapbook to reveal colorful pictures of the five friends.<br>The airport.  
>The excitement, anticipation, and anxiety each of them felt that day was absolutely crushing. Madoka remembers wondering what the future held for them and worrying over her friends was about half she ever did.<br>"Ha! Look at how grumpy Yu looks," Masumune chuckles, "What a stubborn substitute." He points to a picture of the small blonde throwing a silent tantrum at his status.  
>Yu frowns at him and points to a nearby picture,<br>"If you think that's bad, then you should remember how you nearly got us on the wrong flight using your 'reliable' knowledge of the Japanese language."  
>About half of them snort in amusement at the memory and Yu begins to re-tell the tale, creating some sort of a flashback…<p>

**Yuu's POV **

The atmosphere pumps with excitement unexplainable to human words.  
>My friends' faces are full of wonder, determination, and maybe a touch of unsureness.<br>In spite of this, I cross my arms and sulk. I try with all my energy to make my face as unpleasant as possible.  
>I am the substitute.<br>The sub doesn't compete.  
>At all.<br>And I don't like that.  
>Kenta and Benkei try to cheer me up, although the whole time I'm doubting it'll do much good.<br>"You know, you might compete after all, Yu. A regular could get a toothache, or fall off a cliff, or get a hangnail, or run over by a bus, or maybe end up in the hospital-"  
>Tsubasa suddenly coughs really loud. We look at him for a second, but he recovers quickly and it seems that nothing happened.<br>"That'll never happen. Those guys are health freaks," I retort, "Last night, Ginkie brushed his toothbrush before going to bed. He brushed his _toothbrush_! Masumoomoo's not much better. He took a half an hour to walk a block, because he didn't want to step on any cracks. Tsubasa-"  
>"Yu, come on," Kenta gently reprimands me, "Just having you on the team is amazing. The fact that you were able to beat every blader in the country is amazing. Just think, when you guys win, you'll be the fourth best blader in the world, and even after that, there's Ginka, Masumune, and Tsubasa to beat."<br>I try to accept his words, but as I'm thinking about them, Ginkie's father shows up. He gives us a speech about doing our best or something, throws Madoka onto the team as a supporter, and hands us tickets with strict instructions to go to the front desk with them. We'll be directed to our plane.  
>We thank him, Ginkie hugs him (even crying a little! How childish!) and we're off to the front desk. Tsubasa takes the lead, carefully counting our plane tickets out to five. He hands each of us our ticket, instructing us not to lose them.<br>The airport is full of people. All kinds of people. I sigh at the long line that awaits us and note the time printed on my ticket.  
>5:00 p.m.<br>Our plane will be boarding in fifteen minutes, and only ten minutes after that it'll be taking off. Suddenly, I'm urging the people in front of us to hurry up.  
>"Please go faster!" I plead, "We're in the beyblade world championships! If we don't get directed to our plane, we'll miss it and lose, and that'll be so stinky!"<br>Masumoomoo's been staring off into space, but I see him now eyeing a man with a map in his hand. The man says something to his wife next to him in another language. It sounds sorta Asian.  
>"Hey guys," Masumune starts, "I have a faster idea. Come with me."<br>Ginka and Tsubasa exchange an unsure look and Madoka opens her mouth to protest, but Masumune points out that they have a map that looks to be of the airport.  
>"But Masumoomoo, Ginkie's father said to-"<br>"It's fine, I can speak Japanese. I'll just get us those directions, and we can be early for the plane!"  
>Reluctantly, we follow him, silently hoping that this doesn't fail. It could cost us our title as 'winner'.<br>Ginkie face palms, before leaning back to us,  
>"Since when does Masumune speak Japanese?"<br>"Since now," I say, giggling a little.  
>"To be honest," Tsubasa looks a bit sly, "I'm interested to see what he says."<br>Madoka nods, "I agree."  
>We approach the Japanese couple with great caution, but Masumune jumps right into their faces-which is normal for him. He bows all the way down to the floor, before coming back up, hands folded geisha-style. Madoka looks like she's about to yell at him<br>"Hajimemashita!" Masumune greets, using bad grammer, "Atashi no namae wa Masumune desu!" I may not know much Japanese, but I know enough to know that 'atashi' is only used by women. I tug at Masumune's sleeve, but he just shrugs me off.  
>"Y-yoroshiku," the small man answers politely and perhaps slightly off guard while executing a short, quick bow.<br>Masumune points to his ticket and then at the doorways around, leading to different planes,  
>"Kiipu wa tasukete! Kiipu wa tasukete!"<br>They stare at him confused,  
>"Kiipu wa…tasukete?"<br>Tsubasa, who knows a little more Japanese than Masumune, points out to him that 'Kiipu wa tasukete' means 'save the ticket'.  
>Masumune starts reddening, as he discovers he doesn't seem to know as much as he thought he did,<br>"Chizu okudasai!" he points to their map of the airport and bows to the floor again, this time coming up to bonk the poor man in the chin.  
>"Ii da da da da…" the man gasps, holding his chin in the sensitive area. His wife lets out a short cry and she holds him as he leans on her. She frowns at Masumune,<br>"Baka! Dame desu! Anata no obasan wa doko desu ka?"  
>I didn't even have to guess that she said something along the lines of 'stupid'.<br>Ginka and Madoka can't hold it in anymore and they start cracking up. Masumune's face is now completely red with embarrassment, and he starts trying to apologize.  
>"Gomenesai masu!" he gushes.<br>The man, still holding his left hand to his chin, cringes as he points to Masumune with his right,  
>"A…anata!"<br>We're cracking up, even though we can't understand a word of their conversation.  
>"I think they're trying to call you 'stinky', Masumoomoo," I joke.<br>He shoots me the death glare, and I quiet a little.  
>Tsubasa finally steps forward and begins speaking fluent Japanese. I assume that he apologizes, because the couple laughs a little when he gestures towards Masumune ands says something like, "Akachan." I assume it means something along the lines of 'child' or 'baby'.<br>Perfect for Masumoomoo.  
>Eventually, they show us the map, and we're able to find our way to our plane in the nick of time. Everyone's face is still red from laughing, except for Masumune's; his face is red from embarrassment. For their amusement, I proceed to intimidate Masumoomoo's closing statement with his too-low bows,<br>"Gomenesai masu! Gomenesai masu!"  
>I have to stop soon, though, because I get shot with another death glare from the raven-haired boy.<br>Maybe this World Championships thing is going to be a good time after all…


	2. China

"Yu!"

The five friends sit on the edges of their seats, laughing extensively at the end of Masumune's embarrassing memory. Ginka and Madoka are on the grass in tears, begging Yu to stop, Tsubasa just grins and shakes his head at them, while Masumune tries to tackle the young blond.

"You knuckle-head!" he grumbles, "Why'd ya have to go and share that with the world?"

"Ah! Masumoomoo! Don't hurt me!" Yu jokes, trying to defend himself against Masumune's noogie attempts.

Madoka finally picks herself up off the ground and tries to regain her normal composure,

"You have to admit, Masumune. It was pretty hysterical."

He frowns and slits his eyes at Yu.  
>Why did that kid have to remember such bothersome stuff, anyway? Did he exist on this earth primarily to annoy the heck out of everyone?<p>

Yu just smiles innocently and climbs onto Tsubasa's lap, clapping his hands,

"That was great! What else do you have in that scrapbook, Madoka?"

The short girl lets a few more giggles escape before she opens the scrapbook and turns to the next page, kicking up the scent of Lemon perfume.

China.

Ginka peers at the first picture and dulls his face,

"Hey what's with the pictures of Masumune and me failing back at Beylin Temple?"

Shocked, Masumune jumps over and gets a look at the pictures,

"Do you just like to keep tabs on our fails or something, Madoka?"

She furrows her eyebrows and crosses her arms,

"No! Of course not! Why would I do that?"

Yu leans forward, causing Tsubasa to grunt a, "You're getting heavy; that hurts," which the younger blader ignores. He flips through the scrapbook and takes note of a few pictures,

"Masumune getting tricked into taking the wrong train, us getting caught at the Festival of Warriors, 5 pictures of Tsubasa fainting at various locations, Madoka and Ginkie getting on the wrong train-"

"Okay that's enough!" Madoka growls, swiping the book away from Yu's sneaky hands. She takes a minute to find a different page and points to a different picture,

"Look, here's a nice picture! There's you guys training with Wang Hu Zhong!"

Tsubasa tilts his head to see over Yu's spiky hair and raises an eyebrow,

"Not to burst your bubble, Madoka, but there's a picture of Ginka and Masumune tripping over their juggling pins, crashing into each other during ping pong, falling at the three legged race-"

"Hey!" Ginka interjects, "Tsubasa's right! What about the rock paper scissors thing and your anger outburst and-"

"Are you guys for real? What about this picture?" Madoka frowns, pointing to a different photo. The four boys turn to get a look at the new snapshot.

The human pyramid.

"See, that would be nice," Masumune begins, "but Yu's expression kind of ruins it for me." He draws attention to the small boy's face, which was twisted in pain on the second row of the pyramid.

"Would it kill you to be positive?" the ever passionate Madoka argues, "It's not that bad; these are just the pictures that I took! If you want pictures of wins and all that celebratory stuff, those are included at the end of each country page."

"Wins?" Yu interrupts, pointing to some pictures of 'wins'.

Ginka leans in for a better look,

"Masumune on his knees at defeat, Tsubasa fainted in a nearly-destroyed stadium, Kyouya and I half dead at our tie-"

"Oh for crying out loud!"

Madoka grabs the book again and scans it for something-anything-somewhat positive. When she finds nothing, she rubs her hands over some pages and picks out some ripped up paper and glue.

"Someone took a couple pictures out," she concludes, "I'll have to grab my camera and get them printed again." She glances suspiciously at her friends, specifically eyeing Yu and Masumune. Neither seem to cave though, so she just pulls out her camera and starts to look for her favorite photos; the ones taken of the group laughing, hanging out, and enjoying each other. She smiles warmly at one she is particularly fond of, when she hears some arguing again.

"No! That wasn't funny!" Ginka's voice breaks through.

"Yes it was, Ginka, don't kid yourself. I mean, there's no way you could've stopped that anyway," Masumune replies. This only makes Ginka glare at him,

"I was just trying to share my love of hand sanitizer; don't you carry hand sanitizer around with you?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Madoka asks, interested.

Yu bounces in excitement, clearly annoying Tsubasa, but the hyper child doesn't stop,

"Don't you remember when Ginkie shook that man's hand in China?"

"Oh no," Madoka nearly facepalms, "That was terrible," the aqua-eyed girl turned to Ginka, "You just have to be addicted to hand sanitizer, don't you?"

They turn to Ginka for his response, but he's already pulled out his hand sanitizer and is applying it by the container,

"No, of course not!" He pauses to rub the sticky germ-killing substance into his palms, before inhaling a big sniff, "Mmm…lemon scented."

"Sure you aren't," Masumune rolls his eyes.

"Madoka! Tell us the story again!" Yu begs, putting on his infamous puppy eyes.

How could she say no to those eyes?

"Well okay…" she begins, a familiar story unfolding with every word…

**Madoka's POV  
><strong>

"15? This is our room, right?"

"Mhm, and I'm staying in the room next to you guys," I reply to Ginka.

After the long flight to China, we are all exhausted and in dire need of rest. Thank goodness I wasn't next to Masumune and Yu the whole flight, they had every argument imaginable. Seriously, how do they fight about socks, dragons, and tofu in the same sentence? Well, taking into account that this is Masumune and Yu, it's not that surprising. But if I have to listen to one more fight about whether Kyouya has better looking hair than Ginka, I'm absolutely going to lose it.

At least the hotel is nice.

Its traditional red and gold roof mixed with the glass windows make for an appealing appearance. The rooms are decent sized and quaint, but the real beauty is found in the lobby. Teal blue squares mix with red traditional-style poles and antique vases to remind me of the country's past. Best yet, the fire-y orange-red sunset streams through the sparkling windows and reflect off the glassware in the room, creating a relaxed atmosphere.  
>As soon as Yu is assured that there are no monsters under the bed, I hurry into my room and readily unpack my things into the cherry wood drawers. My small balcony copies the style of this hotel, and before I know it, my hands are on the rim and my face is in the wind, enjoying the heat of the fading sun. Being the only girl of the group, I am privileged with my own personal room and I drink in the quietness, wishing it could last.<p>

"Hey! Madoka! Over here!"

The familiar voice awakens me from my dream of relaxation and I turn to my left to face Ginka and Masumune, waving crazily on the balcony next to mine. They seem to have found their way around the room quickly. I sigh, mentally noting that I'll have to personally ask the staff to lock the door to their balcony. Don't want them to try to fall with style or anything. And they would do that.

"Hey you guys," I paste on a smile, though my mind is screaming, 'sleep!', "I see that you've found your balcony!"

Ginka grins and rubs the back of his head,

"Yeah, it's awesome," he turns to Masumune, "Remind me, Masumune, one of these days I'm gonna have to teach you how to fall in style!"

"Sounds great!" The other blader agreed, "I've always wondered how you do that. Wanna join us Madoka?"

I resist the urge to freak out and just smile even more,

"Uh, no that's fine. I've had my fair share of falling in style."

It wasn't a lie either.

When trying to find Ginka once, Kenta and I had walked on the very edge of a mountain, when the rock crumbled beneath our shoes.  
>We fell hundreds of feet, prepared to meet our end, when Hyoma, a good friend, burst from the trees and saved us.<p>

True story.

"Is that so?" Ginka holds the railing and peers down at the street below, "Well good for you! Falling in style is always a cool skill to have."

"Y-yeah," I stammer, trying to change the subject, "Anyway, do you guys want to check out the lobby downstairs? It looks really interesting."

"Well, we still have some unpacking to do-"  
>"<p>

There's probably food too," I add, rolling my eyes.

"Let's go!" The two boys exclaim in unison.

Shaking my head, I exit the balcony and slide the door shut after reminding my friends to close their's. Then I grab my key and I'm out the door.  
>After I meet Ginka and Masumune (both of whom wouldn't stop talking about food) accompanied by Tsubasa and Yu, we are off for the lobby.<p>

"Do you think there will be dumplings?" Ginka wonders aloud.

"No, silly, it's the egg rolls that we want, not the dumplings," the ever argumentative Masumune adds.

Yu puts his hands behind his head and closes one eye,

"I think you're both crazy. Everyone knows that General Tso's chicken is the food to order in China."

Tsubasa just walks beside them silently, eyes ahead. I'm secretly glad that there's at least one civil person in this group. Someone who doesn't obsess over food and falling in style.

"You know what guys? I think you should all order what you want, then argue about the best later. Everyone has different preferences anyway," I tell them.

"You're right Madoka," Ginka pulls out hand sanitizer and applies it thoughtfully, "But then again, dumplings are superior to all Chinese food-"

"I told you! It's egg rolls!"

"NO! GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN!"

"GUYS!"

My eyes glow with anger and they cower back a little,

"Enough with the food! It's not certain whether there's a resturaunt in the lobby anyway!"

"Yes, there's a restaurant," a man says to us, passing by.

Silence.

"O-okay, so maybe there's food, but that is no excuse to fight over superior Chinese food-"

"Oh, I like the sweet and sour chicken, personally!" the man yells over his shoulder, on the other end of the hallway.

"I wasn't talking to you!" I yell back at him, annoyed, before swerving back to my peers, "Anyway, you shouldn't-"

I find that they've disappeared leaving just Tsubasa staring in their direction.

"They left at 'restaurant'," he informs me.

"Great," I grumble, walking to the lobby with him.

It wasn't hard to locate the three food lovers; they were already seated at a table, studying the menu vigorously.  
>We join them and pick up our own menus, noting the glossy, laminated paper.<br>Soon I'm wondering whether I should order pineapple shrimp or vegetable stir fry-thank goodness for English menus in foreign countries!

"Hello."

A bit startled, I glance up to see our waiter has made his way to our table. "My name is Ping Lok, and I'll be your server tonight," he says in a clear Chinese accent.  
>He holds his hand out to Masumune and the blader returns the handshake grinning,<p>

"Nice to meet you, dude."

Excited that I could get some education in here, I lean into Yu on my right,

"In China, handshakes are becoming a very popular way to greet people."

Yu looks thoughtful and stares at me with those big, emerald eyes,

"Really? Co-ol!"

With that new information, he shakes Ping's hand passionately,

"It's so nice to meet you!"

My heart warms at his adorable face. He is just so cute!  
>After Tsubasa and I each shake Ping's hand respectively, it was down to Ginka. Ping holds out his hand and smiles warmly,<p>

"And it's nice to meet you too."

Ginka smiles back,

"Oh you too!"

As he reaches for Ping's hand, I notice that his fingers were slick with lemon hand sanitizer. Seriously, what was with that addiction?  
>After a nice shake, Ping asks us for our order and we politely fill him in. I worry about the cost of all this food; the boys don't hesitate to order two thirds of the menu. However, Ginka notices my concern, because he holds out a gold tinted credit card and sends me a flashy grin.<p>

"It's one of our team's V.I.P. cards," he explains, "we get one for each country with the correct currency and there's some $5,000 dollars worth on each."

Oh right.

I forgot about those.

"But Ginka, shouldn't you save those for train rides and emergencies?"

He orders another plate of pork before he returns to me,

"A little bit of food isn't going to hurt, Madoka."

His voice takes on that don't-worry-it'll-be-fine-even-though-I'm-probably-making-a-stupid-decision tone.

I really hate that tone.

"But-"

"What'll be your order?" Ping looks at me.

Suddenly, I'm not really hungry,

"I'll have a bowl of rice, please."

"You don't want to eat anything else, Madoka?" Masumune asks, in awe that someone doesn't want to eat that much.

Ping stops writing the order, waiting for my answer.

"Yes, I'm not that hungry," I tell him, and Ping scribbles down my request.

Suddenly, he sniffs the air and holds his chin in thought,

"Is that…hand sanitizer I smell?"

Ginka excitedly nods,

"Yes! It's lemon scented too! Do you like it?"

Ping's face brightens and he pulls out his own hand sanitizer,

"I love hand sanitizer! It is the best invention ever!"

Ginka's eyes light up and he shows Ping his lemon hand sanitizer.

"I know right? Most people question my appreciation for it, though," he looks at us and Ping nods solemnly in understanding, "Are you a fan?"

"Oh yes!" Ping sets the order sheet down and begins applying his hand sanitizer, "I just love strawberry scented."

"No…the food," Masumune whimpers, pointing at the order sheet.

Ginka doesn't pay any attention to him, but instead puts his focus on his new best friend and fellow hand sanitizer fan,

"See, I like lemon scented the best, but strawberry's up there on my list. My favorite brand is Kokki. What's yours?"

"I like a local brand, but I've always wanted to try Kokki. Could I see your bottle please?"

"Sure," Ginka readily tries to hand it over to the ecstatic Ping, but his hand slips and he squeezes the bottle a little too hard. As a result, the fluid squirts out rapidly.

Straight into Ping's eyes.

"Ahhh!" He yells in pain, "My eyes! It burns!"

Ginka spazzes and tries to help,

"Oh! Oh dear! That can't be too comfortable, can it?"

Ping begins yelling things in Chinese and I blush in embarrassment as the entire restaurant turns their attention to us.

"I'm sorry Ping! Let me make it up to you," Ginka apologizes, proceeding to squirt the hand sanitizer into his own eyes. "Oh…oh oh oh oh OW!"

Soon all I can hear is Ginka's shouts of pain and Ping's Chinese exclamations.

"Hey guys, don't freak; I know Chinese," Masumune states, "I can translate easily."

"NO!" everyone yells at once, including injured Ginka.

We all know how that turned out…

"Well, if you're going to be uptight about it, then forget it," Masumune grunts, disappointed.

"Aaaaaaaa! It burns! It burns!" Ping starts yelling in English once again.

"Gu-uys! Help Pingie and Ginkie!" Yu pressures, even though Tsubasa's been on the phone with Poison Control Center for the past five minutes.

"I. Want. My. Food!" Masumune yells suddenly.

I glare at him, but I just can't take it anymore.

"Okay everyone! That's-"

"Hello," says a voice behind me.

I spin around to see Hallway Man from before. What's he doing here?

"I know eye remedies," he says in simple English.

Although his appearance was random, I had about had it with all this craziness, so I agree to let Hallway Man take care of the situation.  
>Turns out, he really knows what he's doing, because before I knew it, Ginka and Ping are sitting there, painless, holding wet towels to their treated eyes.<p>

"S-sorry about that Ping," Ginka finally says after a long silence, "I hope you try out the Kikko brand in spite of this."

Ping just sags,

"I…hate hand sanitizer."

"Yeah, I expected that," mumbles Ginka hopelessly.

Masumune and Yu happily sit on the couch across from the injured pair, eating their favorite Chinese food to their heart's content,

"It's all good guys," Masumune smiles, "I mean, we got egg rolls in the end, right?"

Yu chomps on some chicken and frowns a little,

"No, it's the General Tso's chicken that we were waiting for."

"Actually guys," Ginka sits up a little more, "We were looking forward to the dumplings, remember?"

"I distinctly remember looking forward to the egg rolls, not the dumplings."

"General Tso's chicken! We wanted to eat General Tso's chicken!"

"Yu!"

"It's true!"

Ping turns to me, towel still over his eyes.

"Are they always like this?" he asks.

"Pretty much," I sigh in response.

Welcome to the World Championships.

* * *

><p><strong>Ahh Masumune and Ginka, your fails usually end up in injury-to yourselves and others. :P Hope you enjoyed! Next up is Arabia... :D<strong>


	3. Arabia

"What're you guys up to?"

Amidst the group of friends, a teen strides up, his dark green hair falling into his intense blue eyes.

"Kyouya! Yes! It's you!"

Ginka jumps up immediately and hides behind Kyouya, jokingly scowling at the others, "They thought they'd be hilarious and tell an embarrassing story about me in China." He looks at his mockers smugly. If Kyouya played along with his game, he should be telling them off in just a couple seconds and then that would make up for the ten minutes of torture poor Ginka had just endured.

Yeah.

As if.

"That's hysterical!" Kyouya laughs and bypasses his shorter companion, leaving the hopeful Ginka deflated. His eyes soon find the scrapbook and he points at it, "What's that?"

"Oh!" Madoka nearly pounces at the chance to explain her scrapbook to someone who seems genuinely interested, "That's a scrapbook that I made. It showcases our time at the World Championships, but someone messed with it," she glares specifically at Yu and Masumune, "and now I have to add some pictures back."

"And we've been remembering all of these funny stories that mostly involve Ginkie and Masumoomoo," Yu added, giggling.

"Yu, can't you come up with a better nickname for me?" Masumune complains, suddenly. He really doesn't want to revisit those stories, so changing the subject seems like a wise choice, "You make me sound like a cow."

Yu thoughtfully tilts his head up at the sky and thinks for a minute,

"A cow?"

"Yeah, what's up with the 'moo-moo'?"

"Well if Mr. Buttinsky seems like a better name, then fine! I'm not picky!"

"What! What kind of a name is that? Besides, when did I ever get in your way?"

"Really?" Yu sighs before turning to Tsubasa, "He'll never learn will he?"

Tsubasa shakes his head no.

"Wow, you guys look ridiculous!"

The attention is turned from Masumune's cluelessness to Kyouya, who has been turning the pages of the scrapbook throughout the whole previous argument, "What's with the pictures of negative moments? I mean, really? Ginka losing a battle? Masumune tripping over a poodle?" he looks up, still laughing a little, "Sounds like you guys had a great time at the World Championships."

"No!" Madoka burst, "It wasn't like that all of the time! I'm dead serious, someone ruined my scrapbook. We had some pretty amazing moments too. Like when we explored China and watched the ocean in Greece and bonded through the hardships that we faced."

"That's true, Madoka," Ginka agrees, "I forgot about those times."

"WHAT!"

She couldn't believe that kid sometimes. How did those powerful moments of bonding escape his memory so easily?

"Just kidding!" the cherry haired boy grins, "Those were the best parts. Watching the ocean…and…watching it even more…"

"It was boring," Yu finishes, bluntly.

"I agree," Masumune joins in.

Frowning, Madoka turns to Tsubasa,

"Was it really that boring, watching the ocean?"

With everyone's eyes on him, the tie breaker swallows hard,

"Um, well, I don't really know. I was sort of reading the map the whole time, so I really can't judge."

"It was boring," Yu repeats, louder.

Kyouya just stares blankly at the foursome, listening to the pointless argument. Wow, they sure fought a lot. Almost as if they were siblings or something. Compared to who they were before the World Championships, there was definitely evidence of bonding, but of course, Kyouya wasn't one to mention such observations.

"So, what's this about the stories you've been remembering?" he asks, interrupting a lecture from Madoka about how the others need to rethink their priorities in life.

"Oh they're awesome!" Yu jumps onto his question like a wolf pounces onto its prey. Anything to get away from Madoka's lectures. "See, since Madoka's been keeping track of our fails and everything-"

"I HAVE NOT!"

"You have too!" Yu sticks his tongue out, "Anyway, we've just been flipping through and we keep remembering all these funny stories."

"Funny? Yu, they're only funny to you because we haven't told an embarrassing one about you yet," Masumune argues while sucking on a grape popsicle that he finds in the cooler nearby.

"Exactly," the rusty-haired boy smirks, "However, you were laughing at the Ginkie one, Mr. Buttinsky, so I'm about 99.9% sure that you thought it was funny."

"Enough with the Mr. Buttinsky!"

"Make up your mind! Do you want Masumoomoo or Mr. Buttinsky?"

"Neither! I want Masumune or 1# Blader, thank you very much!"

"Got it, Masumoomoo!"

"Do you need your hearing checked?"

"GUYS!" Madoka interrupts, her face reddened with fury, "You just totally left Kyouya hanging there! Not to mention arguing again! Can you please tone it down for at least five minutes? Sheesh!"

"Hey, look at this next page!" Ginka dismisses Madoka's question and points to the next page that he had turned.

Arabia.

"Oh I remember going there! We took a break from battling for a little bit to check out Team Desert Blaze, isn't that right?" Masumune tilts his head at the page, covered in desert-inspired colors like sandy-tans and rich cactus-like greens, and points at a couple pictures of the team hanging out.

"Yeah," Ginka affirms, "that's also where we first saw Team Excalibur. Oh!" he brought a few pictures to the attention of the others, "It's also where we went to that mall! You know, the super-giant one?"

Almost at once, everyone starts laughing again, save Tsubasa, who was the center of the mockery, and Kyouya, who was completely confused as to why they were guffawing.

"Do you remember when-" Masumune began before he cracks up and is unable to continue.

"Of course!" Yu responds, "How could we forget? Tsubasa, you totally fell for that."

Tsubasa just stares at the picture they were pointing at in disgust at the unpleasant memory.

"What happened to Tsubasa?" Kyouya leans forward in his seat, smirking.

In spite of her annoyance at the guys, Madoka seems to be enjoying these stories so far,

"It was really sad."

"I'll tell it this time," Masumune offers, grinning like an idiot, "It all began while we were at this mall…"

**Masumune's POV**

Okay, so two things happened while we were in China. Scratch that. Three things.

Number 1, we learned that Ginka is a freakish hand sanitizer addict. Also, he isn't very good in desperate situations. And he really doesn't like egg rolls. Two, we met a group of self centered circus-like bladers who call themselves Wang Hu Zhong. And we defeated them easily in battle. Not that we didn't see that coming. I mean, with me, the number one blader, on the team, winning was in the bag. It was, like, predestined! Anyway, where was I? Oh right. Third, I'm beginning to suspect that something's up with Tsubasa. _Besides_ the hairdo. During his battle with a Wang Hu Zhong member, he went a little berserk. I really don't know what was causing that, maybe stress or something of the like, but all I knew was that I'm watching the normally calm blader a little more carefully at this point. Don't want him to go maniac on us or anything.

Now that we have the Chinese team behind us, we've been granted a blissful break from the intense battle stress. So here we are! Enjoying a nice time in Saudi Arabia! We get to relax, watch a battle between two teams I haven't bothered to memorize the names of, and take a breather before heading off to our next country. Today, Madoka practically begged us to death to visit a shopping mall. Apparently, Arabia has some of those super-sized shopping centers that have everything under the sun plus more. Ginka and I weren't really excited about the idea, but when she mentioned that most of them have amusement parks-well-let's just say that our minds were changed instantly. Now that we're here, I have to admit that this place is pretty cool. There are stores everywhere, selling everything, and people are buying stuff like there's no tomorrow. The whole place smells like the salty aroma of pretzels, which are being sold by the bucketful in the nearby food court. I'm suddenly more hungry than usual.

"Guys, can we get something to eat?" I ask, hoping that Madoka has her wallet on her, "I'm starved!"

"I'm hungry too!" Ginka joins in, "And the smell of those pretzels is making my mouth water."

We both turn to Madoka imploringly and let our eyes tell our desperate question.

"No way, you guys. I'm not spending my money on those pretzels."

Without changing our expression, we turn to our left and beg Tsubasa with the same emotion.

"I didn't bring my wallet," he says plainly.

Defeated, we drop our hands and sulk openly as a last resort.

"Can we please get something Madoka?" Yu looks pleadingly up at her and balls his hands beseechingly.

She hesitates greatly at his adorable face.

"Well, maybe something small, but you really should've eaten something before we came here."

That kid has good convincing skills, I must say. The puppy-dog eyes are killer.

"Nice going Yu," Ginka whispers, leaning towards the shorter boy, "You have to teach me how to do that."

"Five dollars after Tsubasa and Madoka are asleep," Yu bargains.

"Done."

"Excellent."

Before long, I find myself enjoying a deliciously warm pretzel the size of my head. The bready texture compliments the saltiness of the rocky salt and I bite off every piece hungrily. Soon I'm empty handed and eyeing Ginka's half-eaten pretzel with jealousy.

"Hey Ginka look over there! There's rainbow colored crabs!"

"What?"

Ginka looks in the direction that I point him in and searches for the crabs.

Quickly, I grab his pretzel and eat it while he's still in wonder.

"Oh it's true!" he points out some multi-colored crab balloons above our heads.

"How did those even get there?" Madoka wonders aloud, "It seems like that's happened before…"

"Hey! My pretzel! It's gone!" Ginka gasps.

"Like no! Ginka, you ditz," I scold him, "You ate it already, of course it's gone."

"Oh. Hey yeah, I guess you're right,"Ginka nods slowly still staring at his hand a bit confused, "Man, I could've sworn I still had half."

"Actually Ginkie-"

"Yu. Two dollars," I interrupt the clever witness.

"Six," Yu barters, slitting his eyes at me. His face is covered in salt from his pretzel and he's licking his fingers.

"Three."

"Five."

"Done."

"Excellent."

Yu was getting rich today.

"So, what store are we going to first?" Ginka asks.

"I really want to check out that computer store," Madoka replies, gazing longingly at a shop on the other side of the mall.

"I don't want to look at boring old computers! Tsubasa, you take me to the toy store," Yu commands.

"Let's see what everyone else wants to do first, Yu," the teen responds.

Yu just huffs.

"Well, I'm flexible," I say, trying to look easygoing, "I'll do whatever you guys want to do."

"That's…nice of you Masamune," Ginka states, eyeing me a little. I was a bit offended by his unsureness. "Well, I want to check out that Beyblade store next to your computer place, Madoka," Ginka continues.

"How about we split up?" Tsubasa suggests, "Madoka, you take Ginka to the Beyblade and computer stores and I'll take Yu to the toy store."

Madoka blinks her aqua eyes and thinks for a second,

"Are you sure you can handle Yu?"

I swear, that girl thinks she's our mother or something and she's always nervous to let us go off on our own.

"I think I can survive," he laughed a little.

How inconsiderate! They didn't even think of me! After I was so flexible for them!

"And where do you want _me_ to go?" I ask, my tone a bit sharp.

Ginka's just walking back from throwing the trash away,

"You can go with whomever Masamune. You said you were flexible, right?"

Me and my big mouth.

"I'll go with Yu and Tsubasa," I say plainly.

"Yay, Masumoomoo's with us! We can look at the panda plushies together! Excellent!" Yu squeals, bouncing a little.

Okay, so there's pandas. That makes this situation a little better.

"Call me on my cell if you need anything," Madoka tells Tsubasa and she and Ginka head for the computer store.

"Will do."

And with that, they're gone and so are we, headed for the toy store. Yu's jumping around like a maniac and Tsubasa's just walking silently, so I'm forced to watch my surroundings instead. It's that or join those two in their bouncing and speechlessness.

As I study the stores, I notice that most of the signs are in Arabic and the conversations around me are in this tongue too. It's a good thing I know Arabic. The sign to my left translates to 'toasted dogs'.

What?

Maybe it's 'Grilled Canines'?

Or 'Stylish Pork'?

What kind of store is it anyway?

I observe it closer and realize that it's a beauty salon.

Okay, so maybe my translation skills need a little work.

I still know Arabic.

Really.

"TSUBASA!"

Yu stops jumping and tugs on Tsubasa's shirt eagerly,

"I really need to go! REALLY, REALLY BAD! TAKE ME NOW!"

People are staring at the tantrum-throwing Yu with distaste. It's a good thing they probably can't understand English.

"Alright, the restrooms are this way; follow me," Tsubasa guides us to a sign that has the little restroom dude on it. I noticed his cheeks are a tiny bit pink from embarrassment.

"I want Masumoomoo to take me," the youngest announces, "I don't like going inside alone. It's creepy."

" What! No!" I protest immediately.

"But I REALLY NEED TO GO!"

"NO! I'M NOT GOING IN!"

"NOW! MASUMOOMOO!"

"Masumune, just take him in," Tsubasa wearily states.

I really don't want to. I hate standing around waiting for people to finish up. It's so awkward. And what if someone asks if I'm in line? I hate it when that happens. You have to answer, "No I'm not. I'm just waiting for my friend." And then they give you this stare like, _C__an't you wait outside?_ After that, you're utterly humiliated and scarred for life.

But something on Yu's face convinces me. He looks like he wants to tell me something and I'm interested. The way he's biting his lip and staring into my eyes mysteriously with his green orbs suggests that there's something on his mind he doesn't want Tsubasa to know about.

And that intrigues me.

"Fine," I cave, "but you better be quick, Yu."

"Excellent."

"Why do you keep saying that?"

I lead him in and prepare to lean against the wall awkwardly, when Yu motions for me to follow him.

"Get over here," he pulls me into a stall and locks the door. Confused, I watch as he gets this big evil grin on his face.

"I have the perfect plan," he starts, pacing around the stall area, "to get back at Tsubasa for taking away my ice cream three days ago."

"Weren't you eating Madoka's though?"

"Quiet!" he shushed, "You're disturbing my thought process."

I didn't know he even knew the meaning of the phrase.

"Anyway, I need your help. We're going to dye his hair-wait for it-PINK!"

I nearly die laughing at the thought. Graceful Tsubasa's _gorgeous_ hair dyed _pink_. It. Is. Priceless.

"And we're going to do that how?"

Don't get me wrong, Tsubasa's never done anything to me, and I don't usually play pranks on people who've never rubbed me the wrong way, but after the whole berserk thing I mentioned, well, he needed to lighten up a bit and this was just the way to do it.

"Listen closely…"

We have a plan together in just ten minutes.

Yu tells me that he actually does have to go, so I get to stand outside, trying to make my feelings of self consciousness disappear. An American-looking man walks up to me just a little bit afterwards, trying to suppress his obvious need to use the restroom.

"Are you in line?"

Sigh.

"No, I'm waiting for my friend…"

I hate public restrooms.

Eventually, we meet up with Tsubasa once again.

The suspicious expression on his face tells me that he's wondering why we were in there so long, but to my relief, he doesn't question it.

"Ooo!" Yu bursts, suddenly, "Let's go look in there!"

His tiny hand points to the salon that I had earlier tried to translate.

"You want to go in…a beauty salon?" Tsubasa questions in disbelief, "_Why…?_"

"I need my shampoo, Tsubasa! Seriously, we've known each other for over a year now, I thought you knew that I buy new shampoo every week. Don't you ever pay attention?"

"Wow, you are like the most unobservant person ever, Tsubasa!" I echo Yu, "And aren't you the one who said, 'you must be very observant,'?"

And, just as planned, Tsubasa cracked, frowning a bit at our insults,

"Okay, we can go and get some shampoo. Quickly."

Excellent.

Woah, now I'm saying that.

Casually, we stroll into the salon and Yu begins to look at the shampoos.

"Tsubasa! I need help! Help me choose!"

"How am I supposed to know why type of shampoo you like?" he grumbles, as he walks over to help the little boy. For a second, I see Yu's eyes meet mine and they dart back and forth between me and the man at the desk. The man at the desk...the man at the desk… Oh! He wants me to set up the appointment. Right.

Without drawing attention to myself, I step towards the desk, conscious of every sound my footsteps are making. I try to quiet them.

"Do you speak English?" I ask the Arabic man, hopefully.

Not that I don't know Arabic, it's just that my Arabic hasn't been so wonderful today and I really don't want to mess up like I did with the Japanese couple back at the airport…

"Yes. We English speak," the man responds in a thick accent.

A wash of relief floods me as I continue, "Oh good! Well, you see, my friend over there," I point to Tsubasa, "Yeah him. For the longest time, it's been his life dream to try something new with his hair, but he's really shy and well, he needs a little bump in the right direction. He says wants to dye it pink, but he'd never say that to anyone."

The man raised an eyebrow,

"Are you sure?"

"Of course!" I struggled to make my eyes teary, "We've been best friends for years and we tell each other everything," I feel a fake tear slip down my cheek mournfully, "He's done everything I could've asked for and more and I just…I just want to do something _for him."_

The man sniffles a little.

Bingo.

"Bring him over, I do this for free."

"Really?" I make my eyes as big as possible and feel a couple more tears fall down. Man, I am good.

"Yes, bring him over," he smiles, wiping away at the happy tears that are falling uncontrollably down his face.

"Kay, cause here's the thing: Like I mentioned, he's rather shy and he'll refuse to come over. In fact, he'll probably deny wanting his hair done, so you're going to have to be a little bit sneaky. Ask him to test out the chair or something, but don't let him know that you're going to dye his hair. I want it to be a surprise."

"Understood," the man nods, "It is my pleasure."

"Thanks Bud," I give him a thumbs up, "You really know how to help a guy out."

And let the fun begin.

"Excuse me young boy," Arabic-Man walks up to Tsubasa and taps him on the shoulder, "I need test for my chair in back. Can help please?"

"You need me to help you test your chair?" Tsubasa questions him. His tone suggests that he suspects something.

"Is new and I need test," the man continues, "Please? Will only take minute."

"Alright Sir, but please, I can't take that long," he eyes Yu warily. The young boy puts on the most innocent face possible and that's abnormal for him.

As the man leads Tsubasa into the back, Yu joins me and soon we're doing everything it takes to not laugh.

We hear the occasional, "What are you doing?" and, "Is that hair dye?" but that man must've said something pretty convincing because before long, a pink-haired Tsubasa stands in front of us with a very angry expression. If I'm not mistaken, his eyes are glowing a faint shade of red. Hope that's not bad…

"What. Have. You. _Done?_"

Maybe it is bad…

"Wow, Tsubasa!" Yu pretends to be mesmerized with the older blader's makeover, "I love that shade on you! Is that…magenta?"

"It's your color," I add, "Really brings out your eyes. I love it."

Tsubasa's face tells me that he doesn't favor it as much as we pretend to.

"You two…you two…" he sits in a nearby chair and sags, "You set me up, didn't you? That man said he wanted me to test out his shampoo, but then he said something about fulfilling my life dream for me. Ugh, what am I going to do with you?"

"You could thank us," Yu suggests, "We did you a favor!"

"A favor! You dyed my hair _pink!_"

"It's really more of a fuchsia-" I correct.

"I don't care," Tsubasa narrows his eyebrows, "Masamune, I hope you have your wallet on you, because you need to go and buy me a hat to cover_ this_," he holds up a lock of his newly colored mane, distastefully. His normally golden eyes are dangerously glowing more scarlet by the minute. I notice his voice is getting deeper too. What's happening to him?

"Uh, o-okay," I was a little nervous by his reaction. Fumbling for my wallet, I hand it to Yu and give him specific instructions to buy a hat for Tsubasa.

"Gotcha," Yu bubbles. He seems natural, considering the circumstances. I'll bet he's played this sorta trick on Tsubasa before. I wonder if he has more schemes up his sleeve. With one look at Tsubasa's face, I can honestly say that I hope this isn't the case.

Around ten minutes later, I realize that my hopes were for naught.

Yu holds out the most decorated, flowery, girly hat in history to red-eyed Tsubasa and grins innocently.

"Here you go!"

"_Yu…_" the humiliated teen growls darkly. I'm seriously considering calling 911. Or the fashion police. That blue and orange hat totally clashes with Tsubasa's pink hair. I mean, what was Yu thinking? And that bow-!

"Zere! He's ze one!" A voice interrupts.

We're interrupted a lot, it seems.

A group of people, all wearing floral hats, parade in, eyeballing Tsubasa's pink hair and his hat that Yu quickly throws onto his head.

"You are za von ve 'ave been looking for!" a French woman, with a hat taller than all three of us combined, says while motioning to Tsubasa's headwear.

Her followers mumble their agreements:

"Your hair is magnific!"

"Agreed."

"That hat is terrific."

"Perfect."

Tsubasa's scarlet eyes falter for a sec,

"What? My hat?"

Yu takes advantage of the moment,

"Exactly! Tsubasa that's what we've been trying to tell you! You look great!"

The way that he's slitting his eyes reveals that he doesn't believe those words.

"Really," I assure him, trying to look sincere, "It looks amazing."

"Ve vant you to be in ze hat fashion show just outside of zis very shop," French-Lady continues.

"Um, no-"

"Please!"

"You simply must!"

"We would be ever so grateful!"

"It would complete ze show!"

"Oh do say yes!"

Yu and I are in danger of laughing again.

"Tsubasa, you should be nice to these people. They really like your hat," I convict him. This is all going better than expected.

"Pleaseeee Tsubasa?" Yu begs, putting on his infamous puppy dog eyes. No one has said no to them yet.

Poor Tsubasa's in a daze.

"What?" is all he can say, "Why don't you take my hat and-woah-" the group of people have already taken him by the shoulders and are hauling him over to a runway that's set up in the middle of the mall.

As we follow, already snickering uncontrollably, I wave at Arabic-Man and thank him once more.

"You made my friend's life-long dream come true."

He nods with tears in his eyes.

Wow, I am really convincing.

Soon, we're in a rather large crowd of people, eagerly waiting for the fashion show to start. Madoka and Ginka end up finding us, holding a few shopping bags.

"Are you guys watching the fashion show?" Madoka asks, once they join us, "I didn't know you were interested in hats…hey, where's Tsubasa?"

"He's nearby," I tell her mysteriously.

Yu tries to say something, but he's giggling too hard.

Ginka chomps down on a burger and watches the runway half-interested. Most of his attention is directed to his meal. That is until-

"Tsubasa!"

The crowd goes wild as the magenta-haired blader struts down the runway with the floral hat on. He stares straight ahead and tries to appear normal, but I can see the embarrassment in his eyes.

"Hey Tsubasa!" Ginka yells, burger forgotten, "Nice hair!"

"Nice hat!" I add, trying to grab the burger.

Ginka's hand comes out of nowhere, slaps my hand once it's hovering over the bun and his amber eyes meet mine,

"Not this time Masumune."

_Oh man._

Yu has his camera out and his wildly taking pictures, knowing that they can be used against Tsubasa in the future. Yu is smart. I should've thought of that.

Before he turns around to head back, Tsubasa shoots us a look that says this isn't over.

We'll probably hear from him tonight. Or sooner. I'm guessing the latter.

But until then, we can crack up to our heart's content! How often do you get to see Tsubasa modeling a flowery hat? I count this as a once in a lifetime experience.

"Thanks Masumoomoo," Yu whispers to me, while showing off some of his hilarious photographs.

"No prob, little dude," I respond. It was pretty fun. I think this trip to the mall was well worth it. Somewhere inside of me, I feel a twinge of gratitude that I can hang out with these guys. They're so awesome and it feels cool that I can be a part of this. Little did I know that we were in for so much more…

When we hear the footsteps of the very pink and floral Tsubasa angrily approaching us, there is only one thing Yu and I can say to each other before surviving a lecture,

"Excellent."

* * *

><p><strong>Yay! I finally got this chapter up! Man, I haven't updated in over two months! Sorry about that :(. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Yu and Masamune's little prank XD. The next country is Russia, I believe. Right? Wait, hold on, now I have to look this up. <strong>

***looks it up***

**Yeah Russia's next :P. Well then, until Russia! :)**


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